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Austin school board approves 40 bond projects totalling $990 million

Austin school board approves 40 bond projects totalling $990 million

The Austin school board Tuesday morning approved 40 bond projects totalling $990 million, which includes rebuilding Brown Elementary, moving LASA to Eastside Memorial, building Eastside a new campus on the Alternative Learning Center (the original L.C. Anderson site) and major renovations and expansion to Bowie.

The total bond package totals nearly $1.1 billion, but the district plans to use left over funds from previous bonds and money from upcoming land sales to bring the total down to $990 million.

The $1.073 billion in bond projects include building replacement schools for Casis, Menchaca, Brown and Govalle elementary schools, and a new school for southwest Austin, among other projects. It also calls for the LASA move, a new school for Eastside and starting at LBJ a career launch program and medical magnet school.

The package excludes a new elementary school to relieve overcrowding in northwest Austin, the modernization project for Martin Middle School, and a middle school in the Mueller development. Multiple community members petitioned the board during public comments Monday night to include the northeast Austin middle school, a flashpoint in the meeting. Community members threatened to oppose the bond package if the project was excluded, and board discussions grew contentious over the issue.

After multiple failed amendments to include the project, trustees approved in a split vote adding the Mueller middle school so long as it didn’t cause the bond package to exceed $1 billion. But some trustees quickly appeared confused over what they voted for. And Trustee Ann Teich, who made the amendment to the motion approving the bond projects, said she realized she didn’t include language to say the inclusion of the Mueller middle school was contingent on whether a deal could be struck with the city and Mueller developer to keep the cost below the $10 million needed for the school, which in turn would put the bond package under $1 billion.

The district’s legal counsel told the board they could rescind Teich’s amendment, which they did, and the board proceeded with the vote on the projects without it. Trustees, however, directed Superintendent Paul Cruz to talk with the Mueller developer and city officials to explore whether they could work out a deal to bring project costs down and include it in the final vote next Monday.

Prior to the vote, James Nortey, who lives in northeast Austin, urged the board to approve the middle school in Mueller, warning that a charter school may take the opportunity to build on the donated 10-acres if the district doesn’t, possibly causing the district to lose more students to competition.

Northeast Austin “faces challenges, but not in isolation, but in the midst of a history of inequitable distribution of resources,” Nortey said. “A middle school is the best option to address inequity by allowing a fair shake at resources for a community that is being pushed out…We don’t have to choose between good ideas for East Austin. We can have LASA and a northeast middle school.”

A previous administrative recommendation left off LASA and the northeast middle school from projects to be considered in the bond, but last week, trustees proposed the moves that added back LASA.

Trustee Ted Gordon, who pushed to get Mueller and critical need projects back into the proposal, which would have pushed the bond amount over $1 billion, was the only board member to vote against the list of bond projects. He also said the northeast middle school is a solution to curb charter competition in that area, and again emphasized that the removal of LASA from LBJ, which he has always opposed, causes further segregation in the district, because three high schools in the area, LBJ, Reagan and Eastside, once it moves, will educate nearly a population of nearly all low-income, black and Hispanic students. Because of Mueller’s location and goal to attract diversity, the middle school would educate students of various socio-economic backgrounds and ethnicities.

“This board has stated that desegregation is one of it’s principles. I don’t see it,” Gordon said. “Where is that represented in what we’re about to do? It’s not…(Mueller) is a plan that seeks to make our area, a school, that is diverse.”

But with a price tag of $61 million to build it, other trustees, including Cindy Anderson pushed back, saying the board needed to keep the bond package under $1 billion so the tax rate doesn’t increase.

“We’ve got some tough decisions to make, but in the 11th hour, trying to make switches and going above what we set as a priority, I find, really, really problematic,” Anderson said. “For our taxpayers who already are going to face the costs of their appraisals increasing, a tax rate increase for this, I’m not sure is our best choice.”

Various aspects of the bond proposal also have drawn ire in recent days.

Late last week, the Travis County Taxpayers Union asked the district to halt any plans to demolish T.A. Brown Elementary, one of the projects in the bond package, alleging structural damages that prompted the sudden closure of the school were exaggerated to help the district win over voters for the proposed bond election. The school board is scheduled to decide tonight on a separate vote for the selection of a contractor for the demolition of the campus.